The Byline

Whether you’ve taken charge of a side accustomed to success or rewritten the history books by guiding a lower-tier side through the divisions, conquering the footballing world is what every single player Football Manager career is all about.

No matter how many wonderkids you pick up or trophies you lift, nothing tastes sweeter than toppling your mates and earning the ultimate bragging rights in one of FM’s multiplayer game modes*.

These modes have risen to prominence in recent seasons and we’ve put together a guide on how to make the most of them in the months to come. 

In a previous piece, we touched on the attacking insights you can take from Football Manager 2022’s brand-new Data Hub. 

As Football Manager players, we usually put a lot of thought into our tactical approach. Not just the formation, the player roles and the instructions, but also how and when to press the opponent (enhanced by FM22’s new pressing system), if we should pass short or long and if certain roles should principally Defend, Support or Attack. It’s a beautiful thing when you are winning but it can be a nightmarish puzzle to solve when you are on a losing streak. 

The rapid rise of the popularity of analytics in football is now reflected in-game through a variety of useful visualisations in the Hub. You can maximise this feature to give you deeper insight into how your team are playing in every phase of play and in every part of the pitch. 

Historically it can be difficult to figure out exactly where things are breaking down, but FM22’s new Data Hub can empower you to easily see some of these challenges and tweak your tactic to get more from your system and your current players. It’s worth bearing in mind that the better analysts you have, the more information you’ll have to play with.

In this second part of his series, FM Stag explores how you can obtain key Defensive Insights from the Data Hub.

Now that the game has been out a little while and you’ve had a chance to test out the new features, we know that a lot of your attention will be turning towards long-term saves, meticulously planning out the moves you’re going to make to snap up the next big wonderkids.

Something you can’t plan for, just like in real life, is a takeover at your club. We’ve seen a couple of British clubs make headlines this year after substantial investment from overseas but as a manager it can be difficult to know where to start when the cash comes flooding in. So, to give you some pointers, Joseph Douglas has put together a list of the top five things to do when your team gets brand-new owners in FM22.

In an ideal world, we’d all love our teams to play a dynamic, possession-heavy style driven by a patient build-up from the back. That idealised image of Total Football, of attacking with maximum width and then making the pitch as narrow as possible when transitioning to defensive actions, captivates most Football Manager players. 

Ihor Crusadertsar explains his concept of the ‘Mentality Ladder’ and how understanding and mastering it is one of the first steps in creating a successful possession football tactic in FM22.

If you’re anything like us, the temperatures dropping and the nights drawing in can only mean one thing and that’s sinking the hours into a long-term Football Manager career. There’s something unmistakably rewarding about rising through the divisions, even if it takes a few seasons, before reaching the big time and breaking new ground with your club. 

To provide you with some inspiration, here are eight of our favourite long-term FM22 challenges from around the world. 

Data is becoming an increasingly popular topic in football. No longer is it just the remit of deeply analytical fans but now an important reference for fans, journalists, pundits and modern-day managers. And, of course, Football Manager players. 

It’s also not just passes, assists, dribbles and goals that are considered as data. When any action that any player or team can perform in a football match is counted and written down, that is data. Analysts all over the world review not just video highlights and pages of numbers, but also visualisations which can really bring those numbers to life.

Lots of these metrics have been recorded in Football Manager for a number of years, but after the introduction of xG in Football Manager 2021, your data experience has been completely revolutionised with the introduction of the Data Hub for Football Manager 2022. FM Stag explains how you can see these numbers come to life in new and meaningful ways, helping you better manage your team’s path to glory, squeezing out those marginal gains to tactically outfox your opponents.

It's that time of the year again. A new Football Manager launches and you can't wait to dive into it. There are so many possibilities, so many objectives to chase, so many paths to walk; but who do you play with? To try and help make that decision a bit easier for you, Rock’s End FM has devised a Football Manager Save Generator. Let’s take a closer look at how it works…

Football formations are cyclical. When one system seems to be more effective than others it’s widely adopted, before another system comes in to take its place. Sooner or later the historical systems of old return to the surface again, albeit with some modern tweaks. 

Until recently, the back four was proving dominant but now it’s three-at-the-back systems (or back-five if you count the marauding wing-backs) that are becoming increasingly prevalent. It doesn’t take a brave Byline writer to predict that this trend will continue in Football Manager 2022. After all, the addition of the Wide Centre-Back role in FM22 makes a back-three system even more enticing and FM Grasshopper explains why that’s the case. 

Early Access for Football Manager 2022 is out now so it’s time for you to put your skills to the test once again. We know that around this time of the year you are looking for shorter-term saves that allow you to experiment and get to grips with this year’s new additions, so here are a few suggestions.

While FM22’s release is still a few weeks away, we’re sure that you’re already plotting your first saves. You know the players you’re looking forward to using, or signing, and have some idea of the tactics you’re planning to implement. 

As a team, we love poring over the goings on of the summer transfer window, assessing both the big, headline moves and those under-the-radar deals that could eventually prove to be real hit signings. Here are 10 of our favourite recent transfers; which of these players are you most excited to manage in FM22?

Do you find that the same tricky winger always gets the better of your full-back every time you come up against them? Does a specific playmaker carve open your defence time and time again with lovely through balls? What about that striker who always seems to evade his marker and nod in a frustrating equaliser at the back post?

Sure, you could tweak your player roles and duties to be less attacking. You could lower the defensive line to try and prevent those pesky forwards getting in behind. You could even change your shape entirely and go with five at the back for extra protection.

But what if there was a more subtle way to minimise these issues? That’s where Opposition Instructions can come in handy. FM Stag explains how Opposition Instructions can give you the crucial tiny margins needed to get results. 

Game management has become more and more vital as the tactical side of football has taken on growing importance. Once a manager develops a revolutionary style, there will be a host of others adapting their own approaches to try and get results against them.  

One of the most under-utilised, but hugely valuable features in Football Manager 2021 replicates this process - Match Plans. On The Break FM explains how to make the most of them.